Editorials
Monday, January 6, 1997
Washington should pay
debt to U.N.
THE United States got its way. The United Nations denied Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali a second term as a result of a U.S. veto and replaced him with another African, Kofi Annan of Ghana. The new secretary-general seems less likely to ruffle the feathers of national leaders than the aggressive Boutros-Ghali, who seemed more inclined to give them orders than to take them.
Annan is not defensive about the faults of the United Nations. He has challenged the world organization to debate basic questions about its future. But he also says that he is determined not to let "this indispensable, irreplaceable institution wither, languish or perish as a result of member-state indifference, inattention or financial starvation."
That last comment was an indirect reference to the $1.64 billion debt of the United States, which is causing the U.N. financial distress. The problem began when congressional critics of U.N. bureaucratic waste, led by Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., refused to pay the United States' bills until reforms were made. In 1993, the U.S. paid more than $1 billion but since then Washington has again fallen into arrears.
During the presidential election campaign, Boutros-Ghali became a whipping boy for Republican candidate Bob Dole, who discovered that audiences cheered when he vowed to put the secretary-general in his place. It was a cheap shot from an experienced leader who knew better, but it was popular. The Clinton White House got the message and demanded that Boutros-Ghali go.
Now that the United States has asserted itself on the issue of the secretary-general and has gotten the person it wanted, Washington should give Annan the support he needs by clearing its debt. That is how a responsible superpower would behave.
Date-rape drug ban
TOO often, government officials wait until a public-safety concern reaches alarming levels before acting. Not so in the case of Bill 96, which was hurriedly approved by the Honolulu City Council last month and signed into law by Mayor Harris last week.
In a dating world where the drug can be easily concocted at home using instructions found on the Internet, the word "knockout" takes on a whole new meaning.
Hong Kong's refugees
ONE of the items of business to be completed before the turnover of Hong Kong to China on July 1 is the repatriation of the remaining Vietnamese refugees, a legacy of the Communist victory more than 20 years ago. At their peak, there were 60,000 "boat people" in detention camps in Hong Kong, people who had fled Communist rule in flimsy boats and sought asylum in the West. Thousands were unable to gain admittance to other countries and spent years in the camps, in Hong Kong and elsewhere in Southeast Asia.
For the last two years Hong Kong has been repatriating those refugees who could not prove that they would face persecution in their homeland. This could mean a better life for the returnees, many of whom fled to escape abject poverty as well as communist coercion. But care must still be taken to avoid forcing the return of those who fear persecution because of their political views.
Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited Partnership
Rupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor
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